CINCINNATI — A prosecutor announced Monday that no charges will be brought against the mother of the little boy who got into the gorilla exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo, leading to the fatal shooting of the 17-year-old silverback, saying the three-year-old “just scampered off” as children sometimes do.

The shooting of the 180-kilogram gorilla, which dragged the child through a moat on May 28, set off a torrent of criticism online, with some attacking the mother for not watching her child more closely.

But Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters defended the mother as an attentive parent undeserving of the sharp criticism and threats.

He said she had three other children with her at the zoo and had turned away “for a few seconds” to attend to one when the boy took off.

“If anyone doesn’t believe a three-year-old can scamper off very quickly, they’ve never had kids. Because they can. And they do,” Deters said.

The boy apparently climbed over a metre-high barrier, made his way through bushes and fell almost five metres into a shallow moat. Zoo staff shot the agitated gorilla, Harambe, after concluding the boy’s life was in danger.

A police report identified the boy’s mother as Michelle Gregg, 32, who works at a preschool near Cincinnati.

]]>stdgorillaSaturday wasn’t the first time a toddler fell into a gorilla pen: Video resurfaces of ape rescuing boy in 1996http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/saturday-wasnt-the-first-time-a-toddler-fell-into-a-gorilla-pen-video-resurfaces-of-ape-rescuing-boy-in-1996
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/saturday-wasnt-the-first-time-a-toddler-fell-into-a-gorilla-pen-video-resurfaces-of-ape-rescuing-boy-in-1996#respondWed, 01 Jun 2016 16:27:26 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=1116631

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The three-year-old boy who fell into the gorilla pen at the Cincinnati Zoo wasn’t the first unwitting American toddler to do so.

Days after zoo staffers shot and killed Cincinnati’s endangered, 17-year-old western lowland gorilla, named Harambe, video resurfaced online of a similar incident at a Chicago-area zoo two decades ago — one where the gorilla was not shot and instead garnered international acclaim.

Video from Aug. 16, 1996 shows a female gorilla named Binta Jua perched on a rock inside her enclosure at the Brookfield Zoo, holding an injured child — who slipped through a barrier, plunged 18 feet into the pit, broke his hand and suffered cuts to his face — with both arms. Binta Jua then begins to walk with the boy, carrying him to safety.

A petition on Change.org has asked for legislation to be passed that creates “legal consequences when an endangered animal is harmed or killed due to the negligence of visitors,” in the wake of Harambe’s death on Saturday. The petition, citing Binta Jua’s heroics, had amassed more than 160,000 signatures by Wednesday afternoon.

The family of the boy who fell into the Cincinnati gorilla enclosure said he is “still doing well,” in a statement released through a representative Wednesday morning, adding that the boy had just been checked by a doctor.

The family said they continue to “praise God,” and are thankful to the zoo for “their actions taken to protect our child.”

Spokeswoman Gail Myers said the family has no comment on a Cincinnati police investigation into their actions.

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The Hamilton County (Ohio) prosecutor’s office said Tuesday that officials plan to meet with police investigating how the boy fell into the enclosure before the gorilla was shot and killed by rescuers, who determined that the boy’s life was in danger.

The announcement arrived just days after police said they had no plan to file charges against the boy’s parents, but occurred amid a growing online chorus calling for the guardians to be held legally responsible for the animal’s death.

Other critics have accused the zoo of not doing enough to keep people out of the dangerous exhibit at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden.

A Facebook page called “Justice for Harambe” received more than 41,000 “likes” within hours of its creation and had eclipsed 136,000 by Wednesday afternoon. The page’s description says it was created to “raise awareness of Harambe’s murder” and includes YouTube tributes and memes celebrating the western lowland gorilla and admonishing zoo officials.

The boy’s mother has not been formally identified by police, but other women who share her alleged name on social media have received threatening messages intended for her, attacks that called her “scum,” “a really bad mother” and a “- – – – – – – – killer.”

“that animal is more important than your – – – – kid,” one man messaged.

Another woman wrote: “u should’ve been shot.”

At times, the barrage of insults were racially charged, reported the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Is it not galling enough that the death of any human being with any sort of profile is marked by a ghastly memorial of flowers and stuffed animals (that these maudlin displays have been around so long now they’re the furthest thing from “makeshift” doesn’t preclude that still being the favoured descriptor), a demand for a change in some law or another and a vigil or two?

Now, as an American blogger named Matt Walsh tweeted Monday, “A vigil for a freaking gorilla. God help this country.”

(I felt Walsh’s pain. In fact, for a minute I thought of proposing Matt’s Law, which would prohibit such mawkish public behaviour, and lock up offenders in tight quarters with one another, where they could fight for the rapidly depleting oxygen and put flowers meant for memorials in each other’s hair.)

Then, of course, Walsh proceeded to lose his mind and was soon tweeting, “While You Were Crying Over a Dead Ape, 125,000 Babies Were Just Murdered,” that a reference, if not exactly a segue, to abortion, there being no bad time to talk about “the mountain of dead human bodies piled in medical waste dumpsters outside abortion clinics …”

The poor gorilla, of course, is Harambe, a just-turned-17 western lowland gorilla who was shot and killed at the Cincinnati Zoo on Saturday after a little boy went under a rail, through some wiring and over a moat wall, and found himself the focus of Harambe’s attention.

The zoo’s dangerous animal response team, fearing that tranquilizers would take too much time to kick in or might agitate Harambe, put him down.

Faster than you can say Jack the Bear (with all due respect to bears), a whole whack of people immediately lost their minds. Naturally, most of them went to social media to do it, which is only right.

By 1 p.m. Monday, 141,481 people had signed the Justice for Harambe petition, the justice in question being basically that the boy’s parents should be killed or, the actual petition proposal, that they at least be investigated by police for negligence for allowing the kid to escape their clutches.

Presumably, these folks have never had a slippery four-year-old in their charge. I’ve had only loaners, mind you, but my limited experience is that they disappear and get into jams with terrifying speed.

Others demanded to know why the zoo didn’t have faster acting tranquilizers, or insisted Harambe had merely been protecting the child. (I have to say, in the video of Harambe whirling the kid through the water at breakneck speed, he didn’t strike me as terribly tender. But that’s a bit judge-y. We mustn’t judge gorillas, only other humans.)

The only thing I didn’t see online were the questions asking why the response team hadn’t “shot to wound” or, you know, shot the boy out of Harambe’s clutches. Perhaps all those sharpshooters who unfailingly raise such matters with police who shoot humans are waiting in the weeds.

Zoo management was duly castigated for having such an allegedly inadequate barrier to the gorilla enclosure, though apparently it never before had been breached, not once in 38 years. Bastards: How could they not have known?

Animal lovers demonstrated their usual sensitivity to their fellow humans, with a few protestors showing up with signs, one of which was held aloft by a child and read, “Protect the Animals, Keep Brats out of the Habitats!” The makeshift memorial duly sprang up at the zoo’s gorilla statue.

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Now, in a perfect world, gorillas and other animals would only roam free in their natural places, and there would be no poachers and trophy hunters there, and it’s magnificent to see them that way, as a visitor in their house.

But not everyone can afford a safari to Africa. Neither can everyone live fully and completely online. And in that gap between seeing animals in the wild or not seeing them at all there is probably still a place for the humanely run zoo; I feign no expertise here, but Cincinnati’s is the second-oldest in the United States and appears to be rated as one of the best.

Harambe was born in captivity, as it happens, in a zoo in Texas and moved to the Cincinnati zoo only in 2014.

He was a zoo baby, in other words, a creature of a breeding program — gorillas are an endangered species — made by man.

What happened to him this weekend was what used to be called, when it seems that people had a little perspective — more brains and less of a voice — an accident. This is not to say that the death of such a magnificent creature isn’t a great shame. It is. But Justice for Harambe? Enough already.

CINCINNATI — Animal rights activists gathered Monday for a Memorial Day vigil for the gorilla killed at the Cincinnati Zoo after a 4-year-old boy slipped into an exhibit and a special zoo response team concluded his life was in danger.

Anthony Seta of Cincinnati called the 17-year-old western lowland gorilla’s death “a senseless tragedy,” but said the purpose Monday wasn’t to point fingers but a tribute to the gorilla named Harambe.

“People can shout at the parents and people can shout at the zoo,” Seta said. “The fact is that a gorilla that just celebrated his birthday has been killed.”
The gorilla’s birthday was May 27, the day before he was shot.

There has been an outpouring on social media of people upset about the killing of the member of an endangered species. A Facebook page called “Justice for Harambe” created Saturday night had drawn wide attention, along with online petitions and another page calling for a June 5 protest at the zoo.

“I was just trying to make a tribute and it’s really taken off from there,” Kate Villanueva of Erlanger, Kentucky, said of the “Justice for Harambe” Facebook page.

Videos taken by zoo visitors showed the gorilla at times appeared to be protective of the boy, but also dragged him through the shallow moat.

The zoo’s director, Thane Maynard, said its dangerous animal response team that includes full-time animal keepers, veterinarians, and security staff made the right call to kill the gorilla. He said Saturday the 400-pound-plus gorilla didn’t appear to be attacking the child, but was in an “agitated situation” and was “extremely strong.” He said a tranquilizer wouldn’t have immediately felled the gorilla, leaving the child in danger.

“We are heartbroken about losing Harambe, but a child’s life was in danger and a quick decision had to be made,” Maynard said in statement Sunday.

The boy was taken to Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center for treatment and was released Saturday night. His parents said in a statement Sunday that he was “doing just fine.”

Many social media commenters have criticized the boy’s parents and said they should be held accountable. A Cincinnati police spokesman said there were no charges being considered. A spokeswoman for the family said Monday they had no plans to make additional comments.

“I do think there’s a degree of responsibility they have to be held to,” said Villanueva, a 28-year-old mother of two children. “You have to be watching your children at all times.”

The People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals released a statement from its primatologist Julia Gallucci saying the zoo should have had better barriers between humans and gorillas.

The fact is that a gorilla that just celebrated his birthday has been killed

“This tragedy is exactly why PETA urges families to stay away from any facility that displays animals as sideshows for humans to gawk at,” the statement said.

The zoo said it’s the first such spectator breach at Gorilla World since it opened in 1978 and that the exhibit undergoes regular outside inspections. The zoo said earlier this year it plans to expand the exhibit.

PRAGUE, Czech Republic — It was an unexpected birth that took everyone at the Prague zoo by surprise.

Nobody noticed that 24-year-old gorilla Shinda — who is a bit overweight — was pregnant. After several miscarriages, she was expected to remain childless.
Zoo director Miroslav Bobek says, “it seems that a miracle happens from time to time.”

Bobek says the zookeepers “had given up any hope she could get a baby.”

As the birth on Saturday afternoon was smooth and both mother and newborn have been doing well, visitors have been already allowed to see them. The baby’s gender is not yet known.

The gorillas are among the most popular animals at the zoo. Tens of thousands of people watched the birth of another gorilla online in 2007.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/gorilla-that-prague-zookeepers-thought-was-just-overweight-gives-birth-to-surprise-miracle-baby/feed0stdCZECH-ANIMAL-GORILLAEbola has killed a third of the world’s chimpanzee and gorilla populations, say conservationistshttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/ebola-has-killed-a-third-of-the-worlds-chimpanzee-and-gorilla-populations-say-conservationists
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Ebola has wiped out a third of the world’s chimpanzee and gorilla populations and could threaten the survival of these already endangered great apes, conservationists have warned.

The current Ebola epidemic in west Africa is the worst known among humans, killing 8,641 people, according to the latest World Health Organization figures.

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But outbreaks have taken place sporadically in central Africa since the first known case in 1976 and the virus is considered a major threat to gorillas and chimpanzees. In an article for the Jane Goodall Institute, Ria Ghai, an ecologist, wrote that a third of the world’s chimpanzees and gorillas have died from Ebola since the 1990s. “Unlike human epidemics, wild ape epidemics tend to go unnoticed for months or even years,” she wrote.

According to the conservation group the World Wildlife Fund, the Ebola mortality rate is estimated at 95 per cent in gorillas and 77 per cent in chimpanzees.

Some of the previous Ebola outbreaks among humans are believed to have stemmed from infected gorillas and chimpanzees, found dead in the forest and butchered for food. Conservationists have called for greater resources to develop a vaccine to help save the animals from extinction. But there are concerns that it could be seen as a competing with human research. According to the conservation group the World Wildlife Fund, the Ebola mortality rate is estimated at 95 per cent in gorillas and 77 per cent in chimpanzees.

The animals made a similar breakout in March, attracted by the fruits, grains and treats stored in the kitchen. After an investigation, a zookeeper was fired for leaving a door to the gorilla enclosure unlatched.

“The Calgary Zoo takes these kinds of incidents very seriously and appropriate actions will be taken once our investigation is complete,” the zoo said in a statement.

“This incident is a reminder that there is no room for error or complacency when working with dangerous animals.”

The zoo, which sits on an island in the Bow River, was swamped during June’s disastrous flood.

It also almost lost a hippo, who came close to escaping its enclosure by wading into the torrential river waters.

Officials say this caused $50-million in damage and $10-million in lost revenue. They also laid off 287 workers over the summer.

It hasn’t been all bad news at the Calgary Zoo:

Although the zoo re-opened July 31, it is not expected to be fully operational until at least December.

The Calgary Zoo has also long suffered from bizarre animal escapades and incidents. These include the deaths of dozens of stingrays, a baby elephant, several gorillas, a hippo and an exotic goat, which hanged itself in front of onlookers.

In 2009, the institution made international headlines when a gorilla was photographed holding a knife in its enclosure. No one was harmed and the weapon was safely recovered. That same year, a capybara was crushed to death by a hydraulic door.

The incidents prompted an audit by the Canadian Association of Zoos & Aquariums (CAZA) in 2010. This found several examples of animals that had been injured and killed because of poorly trained staff or badly designed exhibits.

Among the fatalities were a spider monkey that was crushed by a door, while another was left outside in the cold.

Mule deer have also died after their keepers tried to catch them so routine veterinary check-ups could be performed.

The CAZA review made dozens of recommendations and the zoo said it had implemented several improvements.

“Over the past three years we have invested significantly in infrastructure and in establishing safe working systems which have resulted in dramatic improvements in our animal care and safety standards as was recognized in our recent AZA and CAZA accreditation,” it said.

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There are eight of the gorillas, which are native to central Africa, at the Calgary Zoo.

Celli said the kitchen is attached to the enclosure and is filled with food gorillas eat, including fruit, fresh vegetables and grain.

The animals involved were safely moved back to the exhibit.

This isn’t the first time the big primates have caused problems at the zoo.

In March 2010, seven-year-old male gorilla Shana nearly escaped the outdoor enclosure after a zookeeper failed to properly secure it. Shana was able to perch on a perimeter fence before jumping back down into the pen. The zookeeper was suspended for the incident.

Copyright, Heike SchefflerA gorilla plays with a knife left in the enclosure by a keeper at the Calgary Zoo June 16, 2009.

In 2009, a western lowland gorilla named Barika made international headlines when it was photographed holding a knife that a zookeeper had left in the exhibit. Barika eventually lost interest in the knife and placed it on a chair, where it was safely recovered. No people or animals were injured.

A report by the Canadian Association of Zoos and Aquariums into the knife incident cleared the zoo of any wrongdoing.

Celli said the Calgary Zoo will conduct its own review into how the gorillas got into the kitchen.